REPORTAHOLICS Newsbeat
Ninja IdeaSenua’s Saga: Hellblade II has picked up probably the most nominations at this 12 months’s Bafta Video games Awards.
The action-adventure sport, developed by Cambridge-based studio Ninja Idea, is up for awards in 11 out of 14 classes on the annual ceremony.
It is within the working for greatest sport alongside 3D platformer Astro Bot – up for eight awards – which clinched high prize on the US-based Sport Awards in December.
The occasion, thought of one of the prestigious within the video games business calendar, will probably be held in London on 8 April.
The opposite contenders in one of the best sport class are:
- Balatro – a poker-inspired card sport
- Black Fantasy: Wukong – an action-adventure made in China and impressed by a preferred delusion
- Helldivers II – a multiplayer co-operative shooter
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Knowledge – the primary sport in Nintendo’s standard collection to star the princess it is named after
- Thank Goodness You are Right here! – a wacky cartoon journey sport developed by two associates from Barnsley
Bafta palms out prizes every year in a variety of classes, together with performing, music and sport design.
Three of the six most-nominated video games this 12 months have been made within the UK.
Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, from Scottish studio The Chinese language Room, is up for eight awards, whereas Thank Goodness You are Right here! is up for seven.
Lego: Horizon Adventures, primarily based on the PlayStation collection and largely developed by London-based Studio Gobo, is nominated in 4 classes.
Indie hits Animal Properly and Balatro, every have 4 nominations, as does Name of Obligation: Black Ops 6.
Coal SupperSenua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice – which picked up 5 awards at 2018’s gaming Baftas.
Its 11 nominations may shock some – the sport was a formidable technical showcase and obtained constructive if not excellent opinions.
Nonetheless, like the primary sport, it was praised for its delicate depiction of the principle character’s psychosis.
Bafta Video games committee chair Tara Saunders tells REPORTAHOLICS Newsbeat it represents “a powerful 12 months for British-made video games”.
She says the voting panel is made up of members the world over who take the awards “very critically” and vote primarily based on a variety of options.
“It is all about excellence,” she says.
“Excellence within the crafts and possibly a few of these video games have nailed all of these craft areas.”
Bafta CEO Jane Millichip agrees, and desires to embrace the very fact they’ve a British sport class.
“Our members are worldwide and so they’re the individuals who select,” she says.
Most-nominated video games
Organized by variety of classes:
- Senua’s Saga: 11
- Astro Bot and Nonetheless Wakes the Deep – eight
- Thank Goodness You are Right here! – seven
- Black Fantasy: Wukong – 5
Learn extra concerning the nominees:
The Bafta Video games Awards are not any stranger to the odd upset.
In 2023, Vampire Survivors – made by a tiny British studio – beat Sony’s God of Battle: Ragnarök to the highest prize.
This 12 months’s greatest sport area has an analogous mixture of big-budget blockbusters and indie hits.
“I like that Bafta can shock, I like that it isn’t a given and we will get to that evening and we do not know what is going on to return out on high,” Tara says.
“It is placing a highlight on some actually tiny video games which may have slipped by.”
Metaphor: Refantazio and Ultimate Fantasy VII: Rebirth, two video games that featured prominently in nominations elsewhere, solely picked up three nominations between them.
The Chinese language RoomInstances stay robust for individuals working within the video games business worldwide, with mass layoffs, studio closures and cancelled initiatives persevering with to make headlines.
Tara says awards just like the Baftas are “a beacon of sunshine at nighttime occasions”.
“It is actually necessary to pause and have a good time the groups and people which have crafted these standout video games experiences,” she says.
And Jane, who additionally oversees Bafta’s occasions throughout movie, TV and different artistic industries, says the gaming awards are a spot for individuals to help one another.
“I’ve by no means seen a neighborhood cheer a lot after they lose, it is a sensible factor to behold,” she says.
“It is so fantastic to see the entire video games neighborhood being so supportive of one another and there to have a good time the sector, not themselves.
“It is sort of devoid of ego and that is nice.”
You will discover a full record of Bafta Video games Awards nominations for 2025 right here.
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